Mytimetoshine

Only got in 1dig after work this week. maybe 1 1/2 hrs. 20170518_211324.jpg

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One dig is way better than none especially when it produced Color!..............63bkpkr
 

Last week got out twice afterwork. 2-2hr, almost identical digs. Safe to say the gold is evenly spread and consistent in this area. just hope the pay streak never ends lol. 20170529_104318.jpg20170525_204354.jpg

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That's crazy consistency, very nice, glad you're able to get out and having some fun. Someday I would like to play in the water, for now it's just dust and air.
 

Last Saturday I met up with SchoolOfHardknocks for a little Camping on the river and gold mining.
I arrived at the campsite about 8am after hanging out for a bit and meeting his mother and young son we all hiked up the river a little ways and spent the day enjoying the sun and getting a little gold.

I had a little trouble finding color but eventually found a little creviceing and mossing to be effective.

The far side of the river canyon wall was amazingly steep. I kept looking up at it wondering what may be hiding under the dense vegetation. I saw a Tailing slide about 1/3 up and thought. How? Even with rope and climbing gear it looked impossible to prospect.

Made it back to camp and slept well listening to the river puts you asleep fast!. The next day it was just the 2 of us. We attempted to go further upstream but since the water was so high the Billy goat trail that got you past the last section of bedrock was not to my like ing. to narrow and steep with a straight death drop if a mistake were made so I decided to go back to where we had been.

All in all a great trip with great people and some good gold! The only regret was only bringing one pair of socks! lol. Also forgot my cell charger so only got 1 pic taken of the sun about to crest the ridge on Sunday Morning from the campsite.

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haha I forgot the best moment of the trip. Courtney was hitting gold right off the jump sluicing and had found a nice picker definetly a good pan clinker and somehow he got distracted on the cleanout and dropped it. I joking said to him that was inexcusable, thinking there is no way in hell he finds it. I kinda felt bad for rubbing it in but then after after a 10 min search, he freaking finds it! luckily it was on the bedrock. So glad he found it, it was a very nice piece. I should have had more faith this is the same guy who spotted a rice grain shapped picker on bedrock last year while we were hiking and rock hoping at a fast clip. he just stops bends down and picks it out with his knife. quite impressive. Eagle eye! 20170527_090859.jpg20170604_192824.jpg20170529_133731.jpg

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Nice flake you got there!! Hope to see more as the season progresses.
 

Me to Dave. I haven't had much luck with bigger pieces yet my biggest is a pathetic .12 lol

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@mytimetoshine I've been loving your thread! Keep it up man. Not to mention you're really pulling in a lot of gold as a recreational prospector. You've got some skill and I can tell you know how to read your area well. I wish I could get out there and do some digging with ya! Most of my family lives in Sacramento so maybe one day I'll be around the area
:occasion14:
 

@mytimetoshine I've been loving your thread! Keep it up man. Not to mention you're really pulling in a lot of gold as a recreational prospector. You've got some skill and I can tell you know how to read your area well. I wish I could get out there and do some digging with ya! Most of my family lives in Sacramento so maybe one day I'll be around the area
:occasion14:
Thanks for the kind words Shofs. That would be awesome if you came out to California. Might be time to pay the family a "visit"...and then straight bail for the gold fields on them haha. Glad your enjoying the journal.

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Erik, didn't you know there is an unwritten rule that miners always use a dime for those size comparison shots? Besides, who carries tarnished pennies anymore?
Now that I'm back in the groove, I have some catching up to do I see. Nice gold Buddy.
 

Erik, didn't you know there is an unwritten rule that miners always use a dime for those size comparison shots? Besides, who carries tarnished pennies anymore?
Now that I'm back in the groove, I have some catching up to do I see. Nice gold Buddy.
Mike that's not an ordinary tarnished penny. It's a Copper(Bronze) Cent. Not to be confused with the worthless Zinc ones they make now.
But in order to please the audience I will use a dime for the next pan shot. Perhaps I will even use a fancy Silver dime. lol

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Got out once last week after work. Another 2hrs, another 1/4 gram. I took a little video of the dig so you can see what I'm doing

https://youtu.be/JJ0na3j8bII 20170608_194225.jpg

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Another nice pile of gold MTTS, you've got a great pattern going on with your after work digs. Keep them coming, good luck
 

The pile keeps on growing! Nice haul for a couple of hours!
 

Chunky looking too!
 

Well I didn't get out to dig after work last week. But better than that, I took Wednesday as a vacation day all to my self. The perfect day consisted of sleeping in till 9 oclock. Leisurely getting ready while eating breakfast and drinking coffee.

Hit the dig for about 5hrs, came home and watched my Warriors destroy the Cavaliers while enjoying ice cold adult beverages. If only every day were this way! Got some good gold but the hole I've been digging is getting so large and deep it's becoming less productive as each shovel full take a little longer. Plus the flow is not enough now in that area for my prospector. Going to have to switch techniques.

Mike, I got yer dime!20170610_190514.jpg20170610_190836.jpg20170610_190543.jpg

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Sunday I went out for another 5hr dig. Maybe a little less. I set up my prospector and the trap just wouldn't fluidize. Flows were way down, so after 15 minutes I pulled out and started working a different spot with just a gold pan. This spot is a little richer but panning for fines just isn't as much fun as sluicing!

So I decided that I would classify to 1/8 since everything I've ever seen from this spot is smaller. Worked ok but as I was leaving, I classified the last few pans to 1/2 and wasn't losing much if anything just harder to get it to were you can see the gold so gotta check every once in a while that you don't wander off the pay streak.

More mercury in this stuff and lots or iron stained pieces. Don't throw out the black gold!20170617_184553.jpg20170617_184411.jpg

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I haven't gotten out for 2 weeks. I'm going crazy! Today was the last day I have my daughter for summer break. Now it's just back to every other weekend. I should be getting out more often now weather permitting.

During the break I have been slowly working these black sands one teaspoon at a time. It took HOURS!... I ended up recovering .14 out of it. So I orginally got 1.10g out of the sands on my laminate table. Obviously it needs tweaking, the loss rate ended up being 13% off the table. I'll get that dialed in a bit better. Still more efficient than trying to clean each pan at the river...

I saw this little copper pan on Ebay and had to have it. Gold doesn't show well on copper though..

Copper pans were for amalgamating, if I recall correctly. I think gold shows better in green or blue pans. As Ducky pointed out in another thread, if you consider the color wheel, it should be blue. Some people's eyes see it better with green, but blue is good also.
 

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